Noted litterateur Dr S. Prabhu Shankar yesterday dropped a bombshell when he alleged that a North Indian spoiled the chances of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu getting Nobel Prize in literature.

Dr Prabhu Shankar was speaking at the valedictory programme of the national seminar on Sri Ramayana Darshanam, the magnum opus of Kuvempu, at the Kuvempu Institute of Kannada Studies.

The Nobel Prize Committee was quite impressed by the popularity of Kannada literature. It even had suggested to constitute a committee of Kannada litterateurs headed by Prof. V.K. Gokak to nominate a person for the coveted prize who had excelled in the fields of poetry, novels, dramas, epics, essays and critical analysis.

A consensus opinion had emerged that literature stalwarts existed in individual fields and none covering all the fields. Committee chairman Prof Gokak after pondering had suggested the name of Kuvempu.

All the works of Kuvempu were supposed to be translated into English and taken to Delhi. A terrible catastrophe occured at that stage, explained Prof Prabhu Shankar.

Carrying the translated versions of Kuvempu, Dr. Prabhu Shankar boarded a train to Delhi. But the central Nobel committee had not even reserved a seat for him.

Not just that, a North Indian even threw the precious works of Kuvempu to a corner like garbage. With no place to sit, Prof Prabhu Shankar managed to reach Delhi with great difficulty.

The committee there paid no heed to the excellence of Kuvempu and eventually deprived the great litterateur of the Nobel Prize, recalled Dr Prabhu. “That was a true sad story which had not been disclosed so far. I still feel very bad reminiscing that incident. The callous behaviour of a person snatched the coveted Prize from Kuvempu” he regretted.

***

YOGESH DEVARAJ writes from Bangalore: If this incident is indeed true, then it’s sad to know that Kuvempu missed an opportunity to become the second Indian writer to win the literature Nobel, after Rabindranath Tagore.

The only consolation is that Kannada literature was considered for the high honour, and is an indication of its popularity at the time.

I guess 1930-1980 is the suvarna yuga for Kannada literature. I doubt if we will ever regain this popularity, given that the readership of Kannada literature is depleting day by day, and learning, reading, writing and proudly speaking our mother tongue is not cool anymore.

If every Kannadiga does his/her bit promptly and with pride, we certainly can keep its glory and greatness alive. It’s understandable if the younger (school-going) generation ask what use we have from Kannada in this flat, globalized world. But it hurts when our generation (working aged 25-45) too voice the same and act in a materialistic sense.

Thankfully, our parents were not “super smart” in making decisions for us and did what they thought was right without worrying too much on the implications. Thanks to them we were able to read and realize on our own why a Kuvempu or Bendre or Karanth deserved a Nobel, and not just being told by a Kannada professor or lecturer about the greatness.

69 comments

This incidence is a great insult to South Indians particularly kannada speaking people. We should boycott Hindi and throw out all North Indians from Karnataka like Shiva Sena doing it in Maharashtra

Way back in 80 s, there was a talk about formation of union of south indian states to counter the threat from north . Looks like it died in infancy due to the unqualified IAS/IPS officers from North posted in south to intimidate us. Indian government is investing all the revenue in north for votes. These northen states are human producing factories adding poverty to the nation, the burnt of which we, southies have to bear. States like UP, Orissa, Bihar are still in 18th century. On top of it, there is this cancer ‘Kashmir’.

It is high time for us to come out of slavery and stand up for our right.

On display are the callousness of the reporter and the incompetence of its copy editor. For example, in the last line of the last paragraph, Prabhu Shankara is obviously referring to not the “Prize” but the nomination. The penultimate paragraph, similarly, makes no sense. The fifth and sixth paragraphs could bridge a time gap of several years! The third paragraph from the top, with no attribution of crucial claims, sounds utterly bogus.

Prabhu Shankara, a writer of accomplishment and dignity, is mauled by Star of Mysore’s incompetent journalism.

Why was it not disclosed then itself? After all it was a serious matter. After the committee had asked for the nomination, how one individual have done all that. If he had indeed done so, what prevented Prabhu Shankar or others from speaking against it and making it an issue. Why is he disclosing it now when the atmosphere is already charged? Does he want an anti-north Indian tirade a la MNS here now. If all the works of Kuvempu were translated, why are they not available now. After all no one would prepare a single copy to be carried to Delhi. I really do not know how much seriousness we should attach to this story. Will those who are in the know of things shed more light on this?

Its quite plausible northies scuttled kuvempu getting nominated for the Nobel.But did the state government or the sahitya parishat do anything to facilitate Prabhu Shankars task? At least some one could have arranged for the ticket to Delhi. I am sure we are responsible as much for Kuvempu not coming close to a Nobel nomination as the Northie.

It is time Govt of Karnataka comes out with a Son of th Soil policy and stop this indiscriminate migration of North Indian’s into Karnataka.

I dont think we need to follow the MNS route of violence, but make it a law through legislation. Kannadigas are peace loving people, however it is time that we safeguard our culture through legislation.

Imposition of Hindi in South is a imperial policy suggested by the North Indian Majority populace.

If the indiscriminate growth of this virus is allowed we might find ourselves like a frog in a well.

I am more concerned about Jnapeetha – who is getting nominated every year for this prize from kannada and who all are there in the nomination committee ? To be specific- why is bhyrappa not getting nominated (pls prove me otherwise) despite he being the top ranked writer in terms of sales of novels in Kannada, Marathi and Hindi ?

When our own people are denying Jnanapeetha to a fellow kannadiga – i find it not so amusing the attitude of north indians towards Kannadigas.

Or was it that Kuvempu considered too “rightist” for his long association with Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-Ramayana to be nominated by the Marxist lobby at power in Delhi ?

Does Kuvempu really require an acknowledgement from the Noble prize committee? Perhaps, he would have been recognised outside Karnataka and may be India too. If someone has to worry about the Kannada literature, it would be better to worry about the very little information available on intermet about Kannada or its literature. Whatever is available is very cosmetic. The kind of in depth information which is available on english literature is far far ahead of kannada. If we can at least do that, we can try to keep the literary works of kannada alive. Not that it alone will save or keep it alive. But still, it would be worth the effort.

I believe that Kuvempu, as one of India’s greatest modern litterateurs deserved a Nobel.

But honestly, Dr. Prabhushankar’s story as printed in the Star of Mysore is incredulous and sensationalist and there are too many reasons not to take it seriously. First, there is the obvious question about why Dr. Prabhushankar disclosed this now. Why did he keep quiet all these years? The Star of Mysore story also does not indicate the year or the approximate time period when these events occured, a crucial gap. Can Dr. Prabhushankar disclose the name of any other person who had knowledge of this and who can corroborate his account? According to Dr. Prabhushankar, there was a “committee” of Kannada litterateurs headed by Dr. Gokak. Who were the other Kannada litterateurs who were members of this “committee”? How does Dr. Prabhushankar know of this whole story? How was he involved? Was he a member of this “committee”? The Star of Mysore story again does not provide any clues on any of this.

In my opinion the most incredulous part of the story concerns Dr. Prabhushankar’s train journey to Delhi. So, the “central” Nobel committee did not reserve Dr. Prabhushankar’s train ticket. Isn’t Nobel an international award? I always though that there was just one international committee that decides to award the Nobel. So what is this “central” Nobel committee? Was there a “state” Nobel committee too? Anyway, I imagine Dr. Prabhushankar had to travel in an unreserved compartment. Those of us who have traveled in unreserved compartments in an Indian train know that it is not a great experience. In unreserved compartments, it is difficult to find a place to sit and a place to keep your luggage. Dr. Prabhushankar encountered these problems too. And lo, a nasty “north Indian” threw the translated works of Kuvempu that Dr. Prabhushankar was carrying onto a corner. If that did happen, why didn’t Dr. Prabhushankar protest and prevent that from happening. Why didn’t Dr. Prabhushankar stand up and fight for Kannada when he knew that what he was carrying was so important? Please note, the Star of Mysore story does not state that Kuvempu’s translated works were thrown out of the train by the “north Indian”. It states that they were thrown onto “a corner” in the train. So when he reached Delhi, the books were probably still on the train and Dr. Prabhushankar could have picked them up and delivered them to the Nobel committee.

Ok, let us assume that the translated works that Dr. Prabhushankar was carrying were thrown out of the train, or were in such condition that they could not be delivered to the Nobel committee. Couldn’t Dr. Prabhushankar obtain another copy of these translated works and have them sent to the Nobel committee. There may not have been an overnight courier service those days, but airmail and registered post were still available. If delivering Kuvempu’s translated works to the Nobel committee on time was so important, I am sure Dr. Prabhushankar could have arranged for somebody to pick up another copy of Kuvempu’s translations, board the next flight from Bengaluru to Delhi and personally deliver them to him (I am sure there were Kannadigas who would have volunteered). Come on, if the Nobel organizers did appoint a committee headed by Dr. Gokak, and if they were willing to spend time and money to have Kuvempu’s works translated to examine whether Kuvempu should be awarded a Nobel, they would have probably waited for a few more days to receive another copy of Kuvempu’s translated works.

Veerakannadiga and Mysore Peshwa have raised very valid points. The story does seem sensationalist. I can however sympathise with the sentiments of the SOM reporter and Dr. Prabhushankar that Kuvempu very well deserved the high honor.

Kannada cause…Gimme a break! Of all the ppl who claim to be active kannadigas and who have replied to this blog and have jus read this article, i am willing to bet that even half of them wud not be able to read wat either da.ra. bendre or kuvempu have written cos of the amount of halegannada that they use in their literature or to out it in english terms for the english speaking non kannadigas, high kannada or old kannada! We are turning and behaving similar to what the tamilians have done, deleting so many vowels and consonants from the language n script jus cos they are ” derived from aryan languages” or “cos they sound similar to aryan languages” or “are sanskritized”. In our case we are omitting a lot of sounds and alphabets cos apparently its too hard to pronounce them.We even make movies which use mutilated forms of kannada or the most vulgar forms of a beautiful language (this applies to any indian language film, hindi kannada tamil or bengali or marathi or telgu). We make these films superhits, and we omplain about how lit prizes are not awarded to our literature.

Kindly go to the ppl who form the kannada activists lobby and then you will realise that a lot of them are just hooligans who have barely any knowledge of kannada apart from what they see in movies with actors like upendra or one of these new superstars who look more like rowdies out of a criminal asylum. These are the ppl who want to promote our language, these are the ppl who can barely write kannada and yet want to kick out hindi and north indians and want to blame everyone else but wont act to actually promote literature.

Hindi was made the national language to act as a bridging language for all of india because a lot of states use hindi/hindi dialects/languages similar to hindi. It wasnt meant to be used as a basis of discrimination. But alas, everyone has to see north indians and south indians apart. How many of u have learnt tamil with tamilians in bangalore n of all these ppl how many of u know tamilians who have stayed in karnataka for ages and still not learnt a word of kannada. I personally had classmates who had been living in bangalore for 14 yrs and still could not form 1 sentence in kannda. I mean these tamilians are South indians arent they? or do they also belong to the north indian group cos they dont promote n accept kannada?

Stop this mindless bickering about which part of the country is accpeting or not accepting ur language or watever. Instead try to teach the language to ur colleagues. Make an effort to talk ur frnds in kannada!

Even better, forget kannada being understood by north indians; those of you who live in bangalore or mysore or south karnataka, go try to understand janapada geethe or for that matter the kannada used in districts like belgaum and raichur and dharwad and hubli and udupi, cos that is also kannada.

Bangalore kannada and mysore kannada is not pure kannada, it is more of a tamil mix than the real kannada language! its a globalised language! so if u wanna promote our literature try to make an effort to learn the roots of our language.

Please Please Please learn other languages too like hindi tamil malyalam, this is not to promote the language but it will help u as a person if u go to those states, it will help u understand our multifaceted culture better then u d understand it by reading half assed english descriptions of our Indian culture and heritage! And lastly it will also help u and understand the beauty of languages, all of them collectively!

If anyone really wants to make a contribution to the actual cause of any language, learn the language, describe it to ur friends and collegues from different parts of the country, explain the beauty to the literary work to them. Make them feel interested, only then will they want to learn about u or ur culture. If u drive them away or if u botchslap them about it, they will say all of us are just an arrogant egoistic lot and will definately shun our language and culture! Do not let this happen, even if as this article claims, Kuvempu missed a chance at being a nobel nominee and perhaps a laureate!

As far as Mr.Karnad is concerned he is still writing plays and books in kannada and english and hindi! n i have seen his latest plays! If litarary stalwarts can accept all languages,if these ppl who literally live for the languages can respect all languages, why cant we,we are just normal ppl living everyday lives using languages as a communicative means.

Repsect all languages and all ppl, u will definately help “THE KANNADA CAUSE”!

p.s. for those of u who are going to ask me why i didnt type in kannada or who i am et al here is my reply:

1. im a kannadiga, i can read write n understand kannada hindi english n german. I can also understand bits of tamil telgu and quite a bit of marathi. I can manage to get along with ppl who speak diff dialects of hindi and kannada and german. Apart from this im trying to learn italian and polish(cos right now im studyin in europe).

2. no i havent discarded my indian roots to come here, i came here to get a wider view of how the world works and since im here im makin an effort to learn the languages here and also the culture here.

3. i still try to read latest kannada articles and hindi articles as and when time permits.

4. With the above i think i have proven that i do like and respect all languages, so as to why i m typing in english, i have a laptop with a german keyboard, and hence it is convenient to type english or german rahter than type in kannada.

oh you all really want to believe Prabhu Shankar?! amazing! and Nobel committee headed by Gokaka?! wah wah! what imagination!! Have you ever bothered to learn how Nobel prize procedures take place? No? Good for you… only then you can create such stories…!! If you knew the complex selection / elimination rounds and all works complusorily being translated to Swedish before being put up for the final round… and have you ever seen the Swedish Academy – the Nobel house – and the orderliness with which procedures are followed to the last minutest detail? And you are saying the NObel Committee DID NOT BOOK A TRAIN TICKET for the manuscript to be brought to Delhi?!! Plse come again… i am rolling on the floor laughing…

Wake up man… dont insult Kuvempu with such rubbish stories… he never cared for it and you drop it this minute now.

ah yes…sorry that i’m writing so much against this blog but i can’t help it. i just realised one more point. Has any one seen kannada news on TV recently? if yes i don’t know if u have observed how every newsreader ends each sentence as if he/she has had a paralytic attack in his/her jaw! I mean these are kannadigas not talking kannada properly! these are people who know kannada and are delivering news to people by reading it out on TV. It took me just one and a half months of my holiday time in india (of which i watched kannada news for maybe 2 weeks ‘cos i don’t enjoy watching news on TV) and i was already irritated.

And yet here we are saying that the north indians are responsible for the decline in kannada culture and literature. It doesn’t matter how kannadigas themselves are devastating and demolishing their own language!…KANNADA CAUSE indeed!!!

what a joke! I don’t know if i should pity myself and all other fellow kannadigas or if i should just despise and detest all of us.

The country has got the largest number of Hindi speakers. Democratically you look at the number of MP’s, HINDI belt rules the country.

Hindi is a International language. Bollywood is the MECCA of Hindi. Unfortunately BOLLYWOOD is located in Mumbai. The Hindi Film actors pay the highest amount of taxes and that money goes to Maharashtra, however all the people kick Hindi out of MAHARASTRA AND KARNATAKA.

They want to ban Hindi and then promote. Work on your strengths than being violent with others.

Also, even Gandhi was not given the Nobel Prize….Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for that year’s Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

And although rules prevailing then did prompt considering a posthumous-Nobel for Gandhi….it was still rejected.

“…..asked the Swedish prize-awarding institutions for their opinion. The answers were negative; posthumous awards, they thought, should not take place unless the laureate died after the Committee’s decision had been made.”

So, i’m more than a bit flummoxed by how this article even appears on Star Of Mysore leave alone Churumuri????!!!!!

There are obviously two culprits in the story….ONE, Dr. Prabhushankar (who came up with this cock and bull story after 20 years), TWO, SOM Journalists (need I say more?). Why is ‘churumuri’ vying for the third prize by publishing such tabloid material? Isn’t that reserved for the likes of ToI?

@bari olu
thank u for bringing it to my attention. And it is also mentioned in the same blog/article that you sent me a link to, that hindi shall be the principal official language of union of india, yes? If so then why so reluctant to accept the language, nobody is asking u to give up kannada or for that matter stopping u from being a polyglot!

I agree with ur point that hindi is thrust on the students in KV. But there are a few KV’s where they try to teach the students some basic Kannada at least as a regional language. ( I am from KV btw)

@ Prajwal

We should be inclined to learn Hindi no more than we are inclined to learn Tamil or Telugu or any other language. It should be treated on par with other languages thats all. I am also all for ppl learning many languages.

Prajwal,
You forgot english is also one of the official languages. If i plan to settle down in tamil nadu or Kerala i ll learn their languages. If i just go there for sight seeing it doesnt make sense to me to learn their lang.
>>If so then why so reluctant to accept the language, nobody is asking u to give up kannada or for that matter stopping u from being a polyglot!

I dont think anybody said that they dont wanna accept hindi here. Nor did i say so. I just gave u some information.

>>Bangalore kannada and mysore kannada is not pure kannada, it is more of a tamil mix than the real kannada language! its a globalised language! so if u wanna promote our literature try to make an effort to learn the roots of our language.

People dont speak pure kannada, tamil or hindi or for that matter english either. So its waste of time if u keep harping that we are not speaking pure kannada and stuff like that. For that matter the north karnataka is kannada also impure considering the fact that may urdu words are used. I dont think ppl in england are speaking medieval english today.

>>Repsect all languages and all ppl, u will definately help “THE KANNADA CAUSE”!

Who said we arent respecting all languages?? We have been doing that for all these years. How do you explain the huge population of non kannadigas in blore then? Its just as Mr.Reddy pointed out, we ll respect only those who ll respect us.

considering u have asked , all im sayin in my tome sized rant is learn as many languages as possible instead of sayin they are tryin to squish ur language/mother tongue. A languagae doesnt lose prominence or popularity if one learns other languages and hence quit tryin to discriminate on basis of language! If u can learn English(which does not figure as any part of kannada) then u might as well learn hindi, what diff does it make to u?

Ever wondered why there were more north indians in the central govt wen the constitution was accepted or implemented post independence, go read our history n see wat we were doing at the time of independence? we were under diff kings all of whom were enjoying under the comforts of the British.

Karnataka as a state was formed in 1956 which happens to be 9 yrs after independence and 6 yrs after implementation of the constitution!

We were the ones to always take the path of least resistance and now PPL LIKE YOU rant about northy infringements! Ppl like u who do not know their own history and do not think as to why certain practices are in place should not make suggestions on how to change a pratice! people like u just add petrol to a devastating fire! i agree Kannada shud be given importance, but to claim that the rest of india is neglecting us, we have only ourselves to blame!

AND FYI i still speak a lot of kannada with my kannadiga frnds even if i am with my european frnds who understand neither hindi nor kannada and to be honest they show interst in learning both hindi n kannada. they ask us how to form sentences and wat diff words are in our languages! it is only WITHIN INDIA that we find COCKY PPL blaming other Indians for their worries and troubles and yet we claim a secular social democratic republic!!!

Ha …with the 2nd biggest population and the biggest democracy in the World we are also the biggest joke on this planet!

The first thing we should understand is the mileu and environment where the old kannada writers were produced. Most of them if not all were academics. They were professors in Kannada, English and other social sciences. Kuvempu, Da Ra Bendre, V.K. Gokak, Adiga,Kambar, URA, G.S. Shivarudrappa, Bhyrappa, Nisar Ahmed etc all are from the academic background. They were the bright minded creative youths who took teaching Kannada, english, samaja shastra etc in places like Manasa Gangotri, Janana Bharathi, Dharwad and other universities. The university jobs were well paying and provide a good sanctuary for the leisure class activity of writing. We should ask this question – will any of our bright and creative youth opt for a career in teaching say Kannada, Samaja Shastra, Economics etc. Those professions are no more lucarative as the universities have now become factroies to produce the manpower for the capitalistic industries in our globalized liberalized economy. I visited the Social sciences section of Bangalore university some time back. Although the building is old and impressive it stinks like a toilet. We cannot expect much creative output from these old and dead institutes in the coming decades. So they are out.

The second group of writers are the women writers. Many of them were born in literary families and in an age where women were not the working they found leisure to write. Some of them were in academics as well. Triveni, M.K.Indira, Vani, Dr Anupama Niranjana, Kakolu Saroja Rao were some of our great and bright women writers. With increasing pressure of work in dual income families and other family responsibilities will our women be able to enter into the literary field. It is not that we do not have women writers now. Some writers like Sudha Murthy are from priveliged rich families which gives them the leisure class time and resources to publish books. I think most of the potential educated creative young women in our times are probably writing software and technical documentation in software factories. We cannot see much of output from this group as well in the coming decades.

Next is the publishing world and retailers. We have some amazing publishing houses like Kavyalaya, Ankitha, D.V.K.Murthy (the one man publishing house) etc. They are all old and loosing out in the modern economy. Of course the publishing depends on the quality writing and readership. Many like DVK could even bear losses to publish quality books. Such dedicated people will be missing among our youth sold to capitalist ideas of profit.

The one ray of hope is the Literatatuers from the media. Written and visual Media especially is a good santuary for budding writers. We have karnad, lankesh and now Ravi belegere who have come from this avenue. THis is one ray of hope and we can expet the youth to contribute to Kannada literature from this field. The other ray of hope is the internet and blogosphere, which is increasingly becoming the hot medium. It is in here that all the aspiring writers in Kannada can take sanctuary and publish their writings and they do not need much capital or patrons to publish this. But again it has to reach to the masses other than in the major towns in karnataka. But through this medium probably Kanna literature can climb the Nobel peak. So start installing Baraha.

get at least my name right, its prajwal without an ‘A’, a name derived from sanskrit and yes i can write it without an extra ‘A’! ur claim that my name has an extra ‘A’ in kannada clearly shows ur ignorance of the kannada script apart from the basic letters and that u r unable to use the modifiers in kannada script to get the right phonetic ending.

I will spell it again, even in kannada it is PRAJWAL with a short ‘al’ in the end n not a ‘la’

I find the news report fanciful and don’t care much for it, because Kuvempu’s works stand tall in their own right, as some of the most important pieces of 20th century literature, the world over. To all those who wax over the trashy “prize-oriented” English pulp that Indians produce these days, I will leave you with a rejoinder from my favourite Tamizh author, Jeyakanthan (another Jnanapith scholar). Asked if he has read Sartre, Jeyakanthan asked, “Ask Sartre, if he has read Jeyakanthan!

I know why Nobel is not awarded to Kuvempu.
Kuvempu is a vokkaliga, if Nobel given to a vakkaliga, then a Nobel should be given to a lingayitha; If it is given to a lingayitha than it should be given to a Kuruba otherwise, Siddaramaiah will get upset. If it is given to vakkaliga, lingayitha and a kuruba, then it should be given to a minority (preferably a Muslim). So, they can’t wash their hand by giving one Nobel prize. Otherwise, they create “komu galabhe” in the entire state of Karnataka and the secular govt. is not responsible for it.

Poor URA. He is expecting a Nobel prize for the only book he has written (total 20 pages) but he is a brahmin. In secular India you change your religion but not your caste. He is stuck. So Girish Karnad.

About our languages and our constitution:
1. There are 22 official languages. There is no such thing as “National Language of India”
2. Hindi is recognized as the official language of the Union Government. Period

As for Kuvempu’s works, if he missed the Nobel prize, so what? Does that diminish their value?

You are a great Indian.! We people who support Kannada or promotion of Kannada are chavanists. Wow
I dont know kannada and you know.
Your earlier post claiming Kannada spoken in Bengaluuru and Mysuuru is not kannada is full of errors. Sit down and read some books on the history of Kannada language before you display your knowledge here.
You learn other languages and keep communicating in those languages only.
Good luck and Good bye.

Prajwal, peeling maadkobeda kanda..the primary requirement to be in any discussion group is to be thick skinned. Olle comedyaagide nimma write ups..
I have also been educated at KV malleshwaram for 2 yrs..Partky why i know the shit they teach and infuse

Kuvempu bhaktharu should be happy that “RD” has been paraded around on an elephant in virtually every town in southern Karnataka. There are Kuvempu Nagaras in every town. His laudatory lyric about India is now the “naadageethe” of Karnataka. When it comes to the Nobel, jaathi politics can go only so far, that is “nowhere.”

Often a writer comes to be considered a major artist for extraliterary reasons. Puttappa’s is one such case. Even some Bengalis say that Tagore got his nobel because the Swedes for some reason wanted to get even with the British royals and hence the colonial got the award. “Gitanjali” is as slim in merit as in volume.

Just one detail in Prabhushankara’s hagiography interests me. Were the books he supposedly carried to New Delhi translated overnight? Why would this man be chosen as courier when there was another scholar whose entire career has been devoted to worshipping and creating a Kuvempu cult, namely Professor D. Javaregowda, D. Litt. (and Nadoja too)?

The Nobel for Literature is awarded to an author in recognition of his/her literary accomplishment, not a specific work of literature. So in the case of Gitanjali, it was not the only factor in Tagore’s Nobel.

After reading someone’s comments here, some section of people tend to be higly biased which is based on family names and the ‘assumed universal gender than the contents. It clearly shows without even reading the content of the mails, people are writing comments.
sad.

I am delighted to read the scholarly write up on the Noble prize issue.
I felt sad when I read some views which were expression of anger and short tempered .
At my 74 years of age, I suggest that there should be tolerance, unity, team spirit and perseverance on the part of every writer of this group.
If Mahatma Gandhi and Kuvempu missed Noble prize please excuse that Noble committee. Each of you should do your best to strive to reach greater heights of name,fame, and glory. Work as a team towards starting your own prizes which are as valuable as that of Noble prize.
So far as some unkind remarks on Prof. Prabhushankara, please restrain yourself. He is a great soul.

” At this dangerous momentum in history the only way of solution for mankind is the Indian way. Here we have the ATTITUDE and SPIRIT that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family.”- wrote Arnold Joseph Toynbee the renowned British historian. This is the judgement of a visionary.

Please keep these things in mind and WORK, WORK, and WORK as a team ; your individual intelligence has to be blended with your teammates.

Sure, present kannada writers will get jnanpith for expertise on email hacking, cellphone tapping and stalking. None of the current writers have the talent to write anything creative, its all based on hearsay and gossip. Further, the current Kannada writers suffer from severe low self esteem and create blogs just to malign the reputation of their rival writers. None of them read the other writer’s work and just make fun of the other writer’s work using innuendos. Visit the Facebook profile of any Kannada writer and you shall see how degraded their tactics are in getting recognition.